HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla — The Republican race for the District Four Commission seat in Hernando County features two candidates experienced in county and city-level government. 

  • Incumbent Jeff Holcomb vying for 2nd term
  • Opponent Natalie Kahler a former Brooksville city council member
  • Winner on August 28 will face Democrat Nancy Makar in November
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Current District Four Commissioner Jeff Holcomb is vying for his second term. He was first elected to the commission seat in 2014. 

“I’ve really run and governed as a strong conservative Republican, so I think that’s been true the whole time, and I need to remind folks the things we’ve done — we haven’t raised property taxes my whole time in office,” Holcomb said. 

“When Commissioner Nicholson had his issues that were in the tabloids, I was the only one back in 2015 that said he should step down,” he added. 

He says if re-elected he hopes to strengthen relationships with the sheriff’s office and re-vamp the county parks. 

“I went by Anderson Snow Park today and they’re putting in new sod,” Holcomb said. “Since the economic downturn, that’s where a lot of staff had to be cut, but now we’re starting to do better and we need to get those parks up to the status that they were before."

Holcomb faces a challenge from former Brooksville City Council member Natalie Kahler. Kahler served on the council for four years, serving as Vice Mayor in 2015 and Mayor in 2016.

She said her experience working for non-profits makes her the best candidate for the job. 

“When you are in a non-profit and you are creating your budget, you do it very differently because the money that you have is somebody else’s money that they’ve trusted you with," Kahler explained, "and I look at government the same way, I looked at my city council budget the same way."

She said the budget would be her biggest focus as a commissioner.

“I am much more detail-oriented in the budgeting process," Kahler said. "Last year, we did 50 hours of budget workshops at the city level. They did zero over here at the county."

“I think that you have really good candidates in this race, and it’s just going to come down to what kind of person, what kind of experience the people are looking for,” she added. 

Whoever wins on August 28 will go up against Democrat Nancy Makar in November.